Chris Holmes Leaves JPM for Moody's

Muni market strategist Christopher Holmes has departed JPMorgan to join Moody's Investors Service.

The rating agency wanted a senior researcher with an external view who could bring a market orientation to their public finance team.

"The role that Chris is filling is a new responsibility for us," said Gail Sussman, Moody's group managing director for public finance.

"We really wanted someone who could champion the research strategy," she added, "but we also wanted someone with a strong credit background who could think in a way that would be forward-looking and allow us to leverage some of the knowledge base of the market so that our work would be even more relevant."

She said Holmes' background provided him with the right blend of credit skills, writing ability, and market perspective.

He started June 20 as a vice president and director of public finance research.

Holmes was at JPMorgan, the market's second-largest underwriter, for the last four years.

He served as a senior municipal strategist for the past three years, where his duties included co-authoring a weekly strategy report and hosting conference calls for subscribers.

His spot at JPMorgan was recently filled by Peter DeGroot, formerly the head of municipal bond strategy at Barclays Capital.

Holmes was previously an associate portfolio manager at Manulife Financial, in Toronto, where he managed provincial bonds.

"My experience as a strategist at JPMorgan and my buy-side experience at Manulife brings a unique perspective that offers value to Moody's," Holmes said.

Along with former Bond Buyer reporter Dan Seymour, who joined Moody's as an associate analyst in April, Holmes' responsibilities include taking the lead on the public finance aspects of Moody's weekly credit outlook — a comprehensive update of various sectors that is published Mondays.

The July 4 weekly credit outlook totaled 66 pages of research, including nine devoted to public finance. Topics ranged from California's budget and New York's property tax, to municipal note yields and local credit updates.

"With all the attention on the muni market now, we decided that it is important to have a senior person focused on our research agenda across the department, plan a focused strategy, and be responsible for implementing that strategy and utilizing the analysts' talents across the department," Sussman said.

The orientation of Moody's research strategy was previously done by its senior managers.

In addition to planning the agency's weekly credit outlook, Holmes will also be working on quarterly and topical pieces of research.

Updates coming this summer from Moody's include revisions to its sector outlook and muni monitor, quarterly rating revisions, and liquidity reports for bank facility expirations.

"Within the first week he was here he had all sorts of great ideas about how to package our research into themes," Sussman said of Holmes. "He's taking the things we're already doing and pushing them forward in a way that allows people to better capture relevant themes. To us it's very exciting."

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